While She Was Sleeping
by iluvephramy
Summary: Having lived for a millennia, Elijah believed he had felt every emotion and lived every experience. It had been a blur of sensual gluttony that he had, alternatively, revelled in and rejected. Despite the intensity of his existence, in the instant of meeting his Hayley, he realised that he had never truly lived.


**N/B: A short story set after the events of an ****imagined**** 1.22 of The Originals, where Hayley gave birth to Klaus' child on the floor of the church. I was trying to capture Elijah's quiet, tortured nature in this story. I really hope you find something that you love in this story as it is quite simple and subtle :) The cover image comes from here: . . Thanks kyliemou for letting me use it!  
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**Much love and peace x**

Having lived for a millennia, Elijah believed he had felt every emotion and lived every experience. It had been a blur of sensual gluttony that he had, alternatively, revelled in and rejected. Despite the intensity of his existence, in the instant of meeting his Hayley, he realised that he had never truly lived. She was feisty, wary and ever so naive, but beyond his awareness and appreciation of her, there was something intangible about their intimate connection. Her vulnerable soul spoke to his hardened heart, warming the chill that seared his veins and breaking through all of the barriers he had spent a millennia building. He was defenceless around her.

As he leaned into kiss her, nervousness wracked his body. He was scared that his cold lips would hurt her traumatised body, that he would somehow harm her recovery from the horrific delivery she had suffered. His lips gently caressed her pale forehead with the most delicate of kisses. Although it was so soft that his lips barely touched her, his dead heart seemingly raced as his lips made contact with her warm skin. By her side was where he belonged, where he wanted to dwell forever until the last breath left her body and even beyond. Without her, there was no Elijah. If his enemies could see him now, they would laugh. This tiny, petite werewolf had managed to achieve something that they had never managed to do; she could terrify him to the very core of his being, even when she wasn't awake.

His gaze encompassed her motionless body, recognising the signs of the damage that had been inflicted upon her at the church; the vicious cuts and scrapes were still vividly visible against her formerly flawless flesh. More than anything, he longed to pick her up in his strong arms and take her home to the safety of the compound, but he realised that this was the best and safest place for her whilst she was so ill. She needed the benefits of human medicine beyond the primitive nature of werewolf assistance or the death sentence offered by vampirism. Even if it was partly the fault of the human fraction that she lay in this sterile, hospital bed.

Elijah glanced over his grey-suited, shoulder; relieved and thankful that they were momentarily alone. He could finally let his guard down and be himself for a few precious moments. She looked so small rapped securely in the white, linen sheets and his heart ached at the thought of how she had been attacked that night. How could he expect her to entrust her heart to him when he could not even protect her and her child? How could he ask her to give up the life her family had hoped for her, when he could not ensure that she would have a better, longer one with him? A grim smile graced his features as he acknowledge the reality of the decision before her. He realised that he could not hope for so much and yet he could not give up on the ludicrous, futile dream that one day she would choose to be by his side.

He longed for a normal existence with her; a life of coal fires, antique furnishings and a growing baby in the nursery next door to their shared bedroom. He knew that she would make an excellent mother to the miracle child that she had birthed and images of her with the child filled his senses. The newborn baby smell assaulted his nostrils as it mixed with her unique fragrance. He could almost see her smile sweetly up at him, her eyes ablaze with sincere warmth as she cradled the fragile baby in her all-embracing arms. He knew that this was a simple, old fashioned fantasy that would bore modern erotica readers, but he was a man out-of-his-time due to his vampire curse.

It was a curse that had ruined his life, even in the moment that it had brought him an eternity because the truth was, human life was so beautiful due to its fatal and certain final symphony. When he said that life prior to Hayley had been a blur, it was no over exaggeration. It had been indistinct and unmemorable despite its sometimes tawdry details. She had brought a light to his life that made everything more tangible and he was grateful for both the joyous, depressing and downright heartbreaking moments that she had brought him. He took a bleak satisfaction from just feeling, truly sensing each and every emotion that life had thrown at him since their meeting.

"I do not know what I would do without you, Hayley," he quietly whispered. He smiled a small, intimate smile that barely reached his temples let alone his eyes. However, it was not from the bleak satisfaction of experiencing emotion, but from the acknowledgement that she would be alright eventually. It would take time for her to heal both physically and emotionally, but the important thing was that she would heal. The contained smile did not reach any further because he was still concerned for her and the predicament that trapped and doomed her to a short life.

As if fate sought to torture his soul, a barely audible word echoed from her parched lips, "Klaus," she murmured. His heart broke into pieces as he longed to rip her from her bed and shake her violently. Why had she uttered his name? Of all the names she could have spoken, why did she choose to murmur his damned brothers? The man who cursed her to this fate, the man who he betrayed every moment that he loved her. Jealousy raged unquenched through his veins. He loved her so much, yet it was not his name that she spoke on her hospital bed. It was his brothers, her former lovers, the father of her child and the devil who ensnared her innocent soul and entrapped it in hell forever more. The word, name and being called 'Klaus' he could happily throw into the very pits of hell for what he had done.

His muscular hands, raked through his tawny, brown hair as he attempted to control his anger and frustration. Breathing deeply, he attempted to calm himself. One breath. Two. Three. A glimmer of a tear slid over his eye before vanishing into the depths of his soul. Six. He heard her heart beat sped up slightly. Eight. Nine. Her eyelids fluttered - ten.

"Hayley?" He asked quietly, rushing to her side. As he peered intently into her sallow face, attempting to analyse any faint sign of wakefulness, all sense of rage escaped him.

Her beautiful eyes opened wide and gazed up at him with an intensity that he had never known. In that single, peaceful look, she calmed his restless spirit and regardless of any decisions that she was to make about her future, Elijah's soul found its home within her. It was a home that would always be quiet and unadorned yet sincerely welcoming.

**N/B: I hope you enjoyed it! **


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